Live sandeels - is there a better bass bait ?

• I would be fascinated to know exactly what the overall most successful bass bait of all time is - I am sure this kind of thing can never be proven one way or the other, but live sandeel has to to figure right up there. Going out with the guys from Premier Baits on Friday was a real eye opener as to how a professional outfit goes about getting sandeels from the sea to the customer in an enticingly wriggly state. As you can see in the photo above, the day started off with a some really thick fog, but this quickly broke to give a stunning morning.

• There is no other way to harvest sandeels for bait than good old fashioned back breaking work. There's me tripping up all over the boat as I try and nail the shots, doing all I can not to get in the way, and the guys kept on smiling at yet another "hold it there for a second" or "hang on, can I get in here" from me, the photographer. It's St. Ives you can see in the background.

• If you want to get hold of some of the finest live sandeels you are ever going to see, you need to get yourself down to Hayle in Cornwall and see the guys from Premier Baits. Call Dave Dunstan on 01209 217062 or 07770 688207, or call Saul Astrinsky on 01736 796234 or 07779 316756 - they will also go out of their way to help you with advice on setting up proper tanks at home to store large quantities of live eels. They are getting some very good sandeels at the moment, and weather allowing, you will be able to buy eels off them until at least mid-October. Bass beware !!

• I remember when I used to have a tank here at home for keeping prawns in, and I was always convinced that my wife used to "acquire" a number of them and then eat them without me knowing !! She has never admitted to the crime, but I reckon she is guilty as hell. Any time I mention how much I used to love and cherish my prawns, she goes bright red and changes the subject. What a killer thornback ray bait........

• Above is a sight that any keen fisherman would dream about - a stack of live sandeels just out of the water. You would not believe the work and effort it takes to keep these things in perfect condition from the sea to their (huge) tanks through to the customer. I had a fantastic time with them, and I am going to try and go out bass fishing with them next to do a follow up piece on the guys nailing bass on their own product.

FieldSports front cover

• I just received a copy of the latest issue of the fantastic FieldSports magazine, and I was really pleased to see that they have used a photo of mine on the cover - this strange looking fish is a milkfish, one of the fastest things I have ever seen on the saltwater flats. There is a feature of mine in the magazine about fly fishing the ultra-remote Seychelles atolls of these milkies as they are known. I always wanted somebody to pick up on this particular shot to use as a cover, and I applaud FieldSports' bold decision to use it. But then I might be a little biased......!!

• Fishing like this ain't even close to cheap, but I have yet to see any better saltwater fly fishing anywhere. I go on these trips because they are work for me - this might not sound quite right I know, but it's what I do. These atolls are freaky good for fishing, and if you can do this kind of thing, you need to speak to the fly fishing travel company Aardvark McLeod. These guys represent the awesome South African based FlyCastway company here in the UK, and I can not speak highly enough of their operation. You can see some photos here.

• I have just got back from photographing a job around St. Ives down in Cornwall - early this morning I boarded a boat at Hayle and headed out with three guys to photograph them netting sandeels. They caught masses and when I have sorted out the photos I will get some up here on this blog. The north coast of Cornwall was stunning early this morning, and we were only a few hundred years off the beach at St. Ives. What a great bunch of guys to work with.

• Photographing this kind of fast moving action requires that you get in amongst it and shoot the hell out of it, knowing that the moving boat and constantly shifting light will kill a percentage of the photos for you. But if you are prepared to work around the guys as they go about their work then you can come away with some really cool stuff. This is not a job for anybody who likes to spend ages planning their shots or doesn't like getting their cameras and lenses wet - get right in there is the key. Full details of this bait operation next week - are there many better things to use for bass than a live sandeel ?

Is it just me ?

• Is it just me, or are more bass anglers struggling at the moment around the south Devon and Cornwall coastlines ? Granted, north east winds are hardly the finest direction for inspiring confidence when chasing bass, but still, I'm finding it pretty tough at the moment....

• To be fair to myself, I should have turned around and gone home the moment I saw the conditions on Saturday morning - maybe that overload of extreme metal last Thursday night has done something to my head, but I was sure that there would be a bit more colour and life to the sea. But no. About as flat and crystal clear as possible !! I gave it a few hours, but I saw nothing even move for my lures. Mildly frustrating to say the least...................

• Especially when my mate Graham Hill rings me from Ireland on Sunday to tell me that he had taken three bass on lures that morning, with the biggest nudging 8lbs !!!! "Well done", I said nice and calmly, or something like that anyway. Seriously, I am wrestling with this urge to up sticks and move over to south east Ireland. I am in love with the country that much. It does not fish all the time, but nowhere does, but when it's on, it's insane. See here for starters. I get to fish and photograph all around the world as part of my job, but I would put Irish bassing right up there when it is firing.

• Anyway, above is some proof that there are a few bass around south Devon - Bob Musk is playing what was a small fish, but a bass nonetheless, taken on live sandeel from a local estuary.

• I am sure plenty of you can guess what estuary this photograph was taken in. It is a stunning place with a distinct lack of people and some very nice bass from time to time. Even with grey skies the place looks impressive, especially as the leaves turn over to their autumn colours.

• I am out tomorrow photographing some fly fishing with Nick Hart, so that should be a blast. We are off to a winter stillwater to shoot a feature for Trout Fisherman magazine, and then we are out on Thursday as well. Some people look down a bit at these kinds of fisheries, but I never understand why. OK, so they are not big, wild waters, but they are often very individual places that keep plenty of fly guys fishing right through the winter for some quality fish. My job is to make them look as good as possible, whatever the weather.

Off to London

• Tomorrow morning I am taking the train from Plymouth to London, for an afternoon work meeting followed by what should be an awesome gig - The Unholy Alliance Tour at the Hammersmith Apollo. Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon and Amon Amarth on the same bill should be a proper assault on the ear drums.

• Our bass fishing on Monday evening was not a great success, and I am not sure why. There were plenty of fish moving through, of which some were of course mullet, but there were some bass around. Bob managed one small fish on a live sandeel, and I got at least three hits that did not pick up, but the fish seemed somewhat hesitant. Perhaps the rain we had last weekend did have an effect on them, although the colour of the water looked pretty good to me. The guys went out last night and had a couple of fish further towards the mouth of the estuary, and a big bass spat the hook right at the side of the boat, so they are around. I bet it was freezing last night out on the sea !!

• We had our first frost of the season where I live this morning, so I guess winter is well and truly on its way. What a stunning dawn it was, and really I should have been put fishing at first light. But work calls at the moment......

Check out my new bass fishing series in Sea Angler magazine

• I have been working on a whole series of features for Sea Angler magazine, based on modern bass fishing, and the first one is out right now, in issue 433 - take a look at pages 46, 47, 48 and 50. The photo above is the one they picked to go right across the intro double page spread, and I am really happy with it. It is of my friend Graham Hill casting out a bass lure at first light on the south east Irish coastline. See a bunch of photos from that particular trip right here. There are few more photographic styles of fishing than bassing, when the light goes off of course.

• Make sure to keep an eye out for these bass fishing features - I am working on presenting as much modern bass fishing info as I can, mixed together with a whole load of stuff about clothing, watercraft, lures, baits, locations and methods. This style of fishing really interests me, and I want to work on putting across a lot of what I have learnt, and am still learning day to day. I want the info to be both really helpful and very accessible, for I worry sometimes that a load of anglers coming into the sport can be somewhat overwhelmed initially. I have always believed that fishing is a pretty simple thing to do, and I work hard on trying to put that across. Strange rigs and fifteen different reels on the beach have never been my style at all.

• I am heading out later on today to try and nail a few photos of fishing live sandeels for bass, not far from where I live, and conditions are looking pretty good. We had a fair bit of rain over the weekend, but I am hoping not enough to be sending down so much freshwater that it turns the bass off. We shall see.......

• On Thursday morning I am heading off up to London for an afternoon meeting, and then that evening I am going to bang my head for a few glorious hours at the monumental Unholy Alliance Tour gig at the Hammersmith Apollo. The last time I saw Slayer live was at this venue, and they tore the place up big time. I can't wait to see the mighty Amon Amarth open the gig as well (see here). This one is going to be a blast.

Caught a few bass last night

• We had six bass over the high water yesterday evening, and although none were of any great size and the light was pants, it was fantastic fun. Freelining live sandeels into a swirling current and then getting hit hard is such a "pure" form of fishing. My first drop back and I had to put the rod down to do something on the boat - I was sure I saw a tiny hit almost straight away, but of course thought "no way, not so fast, surely ?", and then a few seconds later the rod tip slammed down and stayed down. Not a big fish, but a blast in the racing current. The bass were in great condition, and things at this location bode well for the rest of the year.............

• I tried a few lures, but there were a lot of leaves coming down and plenty of weed about, and all I ended up doing was snagging this up. Yesterday was designed for live sandeel fishing, but I would like to try some soft plastics right over the slack water period when it would be possible to search out the area a bit better.

• There are various items of fishing tackle that my eyes have really been opened to this year, and one of them has to be Varivas braid - it is off the scale it is so good. The Varivas Avani Sea Bass Max Power PE braid is unlike anything else I have ever used (you can get it here), indeed it is so limp and easily usable that it hardly even feels like a braid if that makes any sense. Freelining live sandeels with this stuff is just so effective - I tied it to a swivel with a decent knot, and then tied a few feet of 22lb Varivas fluorocarbon on for the trace, to a 3/0 Varivas Big Mouth Extra hook (see here). Seems to be a pattern developing here - Varivas do some awesome fishing tackle. No, I am not sponsored by them, but I choose to use the best stuff I can find. High-end Japanese braid is where it's at for me.

• I thought it would be a bit of fun to show this sequence of photos below that ended up in one of my favourite photographs that I have nailed so far this year. Below you can see Graham Hill running down the rocks to lend Pat Gallagher a hand landing a bass he has hooked on a plug. This all happened a few weeks ago over in south east Ireland, on the first morning when the fishing was simply epic (see here for the original post). All looks calm and relatively serene, but I am lined up with the camera because out of shot and the sea is looking seriously lively - I really fancy the chances of some very dramatic "classic bass fishing" shots.......................

• OK, so Graham's run down to help Pat out with his fish, but look above and you can see him suddenly having to turn to brace himself against the wave that has just smashed against the rock on which they are standing. Pat is just starting to hunch down, but he has got a bass on the end of his line and is not about to give it up !! I have changed over from shooting a landscape format to portrait (upright) because I can see what is coming out of the corner of one eye, and I want to try and frame the full impact of the wave.

• Now both guys have had no choice but to turn against the wave and adopt a fully braced position so that nothing bad happens. Pat now has to simply hope that his bass is well enough hooked to get through this. They know what they are doing.

• The final photo in the sequence turned out better than I could have ever hoped for. Obviously you can not plan this kind of shot, for it very much depends on the conditions unfolding, where the anglers choose to stand, and of course, if you the photographer have your eye seriously on the ball and are watching every single thing that is going on. I really feel I have nailed one stand out photo that says virtually every single thing that I want to say about bass fishing in one shot - drama, excitement, risk, reward, movement, passion, insanity, escapism, you name it, this is what it's all about.

• Note that both guys are wearing what we all reckon to be one of the very best waterproof "wading" jackets out there, the Greys GRXi model. Check it out here. Although this wading jacket was of course designed for the fly fishing market, it is just about perfect for mobile bass fishing, especially when you have a load of cold sea water breaking over your head. It surely goes without saying that breathable chest waders are a must.

• Bear in mind that the three portrait photos are taken out of a sequence of perhaps twelve, all shot at nearly ten frames per second on one of my Canon 1D MK111 cameras. It all happened that fast, and because I had seen what was coming, I was lined up and ready to shoot - correct f-stop and shutter speed and corresponding ISO, to make sure I stopped the water stone dead and did not blow the highlights in the white of the crashing wave against the black rocks behind. Motor drive on, focus on Graham, and make sure to hold it there.

• An increasing amount of people email me and ask how to get into things like photographing fishing, but there is very little advice I can give, for in the end we all find our own ways into this business, and I am totally self-taught at all this. But there is one thing that is absolutely vital - you have to know when not to fish. If you want to fish all the time, don't try to work in fishing. It is never what it seems.......

Please support this fishing event

• I have been emailed about this hugely worthwhile charity fishing competition that is being held in aid of Help for Heroes (click on the poster for a larger view) - if you can do anything to help, please do so. One of the organisers can be contacted here.

• Help for Heroes can be found here - it is a charity that was launched last year to raise money for service men and women who have been injured in various conflicts around the world, and the amount they have raised so far is just staggering. This fishing competition is taking place on Saturday 25th October at Calshot Beach in Hampshire. The people involved in organising this have my utmost respect.

• Well done to Nick Hart for nailing a westcountry salmon for the cameras, see here for full details. I know how hard it is to go after a specific species when making TV programmes, so the fact that Nick and Shaun did it is great news, and I know how much the pressure must suddenly have lifted from Nick's shoulders the very moment the net slipped safely under the salmon. These programmes are due to air on a forthcoming internet TV station - when I hear more about their transmission dates, I will post the details here. I have seen one completed episode and it is awesome - Shaun Fenton is the guy who has produced and directed my last two series, and he knows exactly how to make good fishing television. Nick aint half bad either !! I am really looking forward to seeing the completed series.

• I am out this afternoon and early evening taking photos of some local bass fishing, right up a stunning estuary that shall remain nameless. We will be fishing from a moored boat, mainly with live sandeels, but of course I am going to fling a few lures to see what might happen. It should be a blast, but as is rather typical, we now have low cloud and grey skies that contrast somewhat with that stunning weekend we had. A picnic on the beach with the family in mid-October can't be bad, and that is exactly what we did on Sunday. And I was wearing shorts.............

It's perfect weather for fishing.......

• .......and I can't go. Light onshore winds, building spring tides, it's been settled all week, this is the time to get out and smash some decent fish. But I am babysitting my two young girls as my wife is has not been well at all and needs to be in bed to rest up - don't let anybody ever tell you that changing nappies is easy, because it isn't. Take it from me, I've got first hand experience at the moment. Changing nappies takes great strength of character, plus something to wrap around your nose to kill the smell and stop the gagging. My wife is on the mend thankfully. Fishing is naturally out of the window at the moment. I reckon a certain mark I know of would have worked incredibly well today for a bit of plugging for bass...........oh well, another day. I'd far rather be changing nappies on my youngest ?

• I took a few photos on Thursday afternoon of some light tackle freelining for bass just outside of the stunning Erme estuary here in south Devon. We spend lots of time on the beach down here with the family when the sun is out, but to head out of the shallow estuary on a boat was a real treat. If I could have a house overlooking this place I would never leave, it is that special, and it is rare to see many people around here. Above are the guys loading up the tender before heading out.

• Here's bass fanatic Nick Oatway freelining with live sandeel for bass - you can see how close to shore we were fishing, and it was a perfect afternoon's fishing. We had plenty of fish, including a fair few bass to around 3lbs, and lots of pollack that hit the eels hard and stayed typically deep. The guys have had some big bass around here in the past and the fishing just gets better as the year goes on - we have plans to do this again closer to winter when they fish in a very particular way for some big bass. If I get to do it, you'll see the results here in due course.

• This is Fraser Sanderson with one of the bass that was caught on live sandeel - I am going to have to admit here to catching plenty of pollack myself, but not one bass to my rod. There's always next time though. Light tackle fishing is the way forward in my book - you simply can not beat a balanced fishing outfit being put through its paces by fighting fish.

• Anyway, my sheepdog Jess had her stitches out on Friday morning, and we are allowed to give her progressively more exercise until her paw is fully healed. So, this morning I'm walking Jess and my two girls in the park when my mobile goes - it's Rob Yorke ringing to tell me about some fantastic ray fishing they had last night off some undisclosed rock mark. Rob caught and released a 16lb plus blonde ray, and was done properly by a bigger fish, and James Langdon caught some double figure small-eyed rays in the same session. Did I want to head out tonight to see if the rays were still around ? Perfect weather and tides, they've got loads of bait, what about meeting up at around 8pm ? Yeah, I'd love to Rob, but I've got a slight problem this end - I'm babysitting. What was that snigger I heard ? Gutted ? No, never, you go right ahead and smash a load more for me, I'd hate to get photos of big blondes off the shore !! No worries Rob, I'm changing nappies this end, seriously, it's a blast - I know you were really good at them in the past !!

• I'm off to the east coast of Canada early on Tuesday morning, so while the kids are asleep I had better get myself sorted for this one. I will be taking a load of camera gear to get as many different shots as I can - it could be a really special few days. I'll do my best to keep the blog updated as we go along, hopefully with some photos of some decent Atlantic salmon and awesome locations.